Make Guitar Track Sound Huge On The Mix

Having guitar track sounds huge is what we always wanted on the final mix. Especially if you are working on heavy music like Rock or Metal.

However all kind of music genre who using guitar as it instrument is always sounds more way better if it have a huge guitar sound.

In this post let’s find out how to make guitar track sounds huge in the mix.

This post is based on my research and my own experience and on its practical. So you might be found it a little bit different in some ways.

However, the purpose is the same, to get that goddamn huge guitar sounds.

Let’s go!

100% Panning Rhythm Guitar Track to Left And Right

This trick is an old trick but its true. Since era’s of modern music, if you compare it with old record music e.g The Beatle, The Door, etc. You’ll found that there is a different ways how audio engineer craft their work.

Especially on how they panned the instrument. You might hear on some song that the Bass is panned left and the Guitar or Keyboard panned to the right or sometimes panned to centre.

Yep! we might also still hear that kind of panning variation on modern music these days.

But it mostly used as a variation only. Mostly, standard stereo mapping on music record nowadays is the Bass panned to center and rhythm guitar was panned to left and right.

The guitar solo and lead vocal mostly panned to the center if is not in variation mode.

So, if you listening to modern record today you will hear the super wide stereo effects.

That’s one of trick that you can use to make your guitar track sounds huge in the mix by panning one of your guitar track 100% to left, and the other track 100% to the right.

In practicality, you record two same guitar riff in two different mono track and then panning them one to 100% left and the other one to 100% right.

If you record the guitar track in stereo mode and then panning it parallel to left and right it might does not have the huge stereo effects as if you record it separately in mono mode as I mention before.

Want to make your guitar track sound more huge?

Here we go …

Make Guitar Track Sound Huge By Layering

For fellow home recording friends, you might have heard this trick too.

Yeah it’s true! by layering your guitar track it can make a big different. Your guitar track will sound more huge and heavy.

As I have tried it myself on my recording demo, this trick work great. If you haven’t try it already, this is how to apply the trick.

So, you’ll need to record several same riff guitar track for the left and right parts on your project. It could be two layer or more.

For example, you can pan the guitar tracks like this:

One track is 100% to left second layer you can pan it to 80 % to left other layer pan it 60% and so on.

You got the idea, just experiment with the simple percentage for layer distance that you feel sounds good. And do it the same for the right panned tracks and all it layers.

Use The Different Amp & EQ Settings For Each Guitar Track

To create a huge guitar sound and wide stereo effects, you can use different Amp and EQ setting for each of your track.

For example, you tweak the Amp for the left paned guitar so it sound a little more fat than the right one. Use EQ to cut the low frequency and leave it for the bass track.

You can also use EQ to boost or cut frequency to make the left and right track sit in the mix. And also set different setting for each track.

So you don’t have to crank the track volume. That’s not a good idea, you know.

So What About Guitar Solo?

Ya, so what about the guitar solo? what I found best to make it sound huge and more pop up.

For sure, you can not put a layer for the guitar solo’s track. Except! for double solo track variation of course.

Because I use Amp simulator, what I like to do is by use Compressor before Amp simulator.

But you must really really careful for the setting. So you don’t have to crank the sounds too much. Most of DAW have the preset for this kind of task I think.

Just Conclusion And Opinion.

That’s the simple trick I mostly did for mixing guitar track on my project. I usually only have two layer of rhythm guitar tracks.

Sometimes I use three or four layers. It depend the sound I want to achieve. But mostly I just use two layers.

Below is some of rough demo song sample of using this kind of technic. Please check it out!

We are a very lucky generation who live in this era of anything digital.

Become your own producer for your own music these days is something possible. So keep on learning by doing and keep on Rocking!

For you guys who just begin with the Home Recording stuff. Hope you found this short article is useful. Thanks for read 🙂